1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to arrangements for dressing or managing wire and fiber optic cables in the vicinity of an equipment rack where the cables are terminated.
2. Discussion of the Known Art
Equipment racks having a pair of vertical mounting rails spaced apart typically by about 19 or more inches, are generally known. Each rail has evenly-spaced, threaded mounting holes formed along its length. Electronic and communication equipment shelves or cabinets are often provided with front panels that protrude horizontally from both sides of the equipment, and openings are provided in the protruding portions of the panels to register with corresponding mounting holes in the rails of an equipment rack. Screws inserted in the panel openings can then engage the mounting holes in the rack rails, to mount the equipment securely within the rack. Industry standard 19-inch wide equipment panels are typically sized in their height dimension in multiples of so-called "U" units, wherein one U is about 1.75 inches.
Equipment racks at communication switching facilities typically house numerous equipment cabinets or shelves, each with its own front panel on which cable connectors are arrayed. A number of copper wire or fiber optic cables terminate at the connectors on the equipment panels, so the cables must be managed or dressed to be readily identifiable and individually accessible near or at their points of termination on the equipment panels.
Fiber optic equipment boxes with an integral horizontal shelf formed at a lower, front portion of the box, are known. The box is mounted with side wall flanges to the rails of an equipment rack, with the shelf portion of the box projecting forward from the rack. Such equipment box/shelf combination units may also be known as "seven-inch" Fiber Optic Distribution Shelves.
A cable management arrangement offered by Panduit has 83-inch high, vertical panels located on sides of equipment racks having the mentioned seven-inch shelves mounted on them. The panels are claimed to have pass-through openings to facilitate patching of cables between equipment mounted at the front and at the rear of the rack.
Horizontal cable management units are also offered by Panduit, and by Chatsworth Products, Inc. These units are in the form of a rectangular duct with a long back panel arranged for mounting horizontally on an equipment rack. Sets of flexible, spaced fingers project forward of the back panel forming top and bottom walls of the duct. Cables can be guided through the duct and let out between the fingers to connect with equipment panels on the rack.
As far as is known, no horizontal cable management unit is available which in addition to ducting a group of cables, also serves to guard the cables and the panels where they terminate, even if the panels are mounted above the management unit.